We proudly announce the release of the Nuance
Accessibility Suite – Nuance TALKS and ZOOMS – Version
5.00 supporting Series 60 3rd Edition / 5th Edition for
March 31st, 2010.
Online
Version: Talks User Manual
Download Talks
User Manual and Software
This release uses the same version of Eloquence as the
previous one (6.1.123). The TTS installation files for
Eloquence have only been updated to mark them as supporting
5th Edition, and the user dictionary for US English has
been extended.
RealSpeak Mobile is no longer included in this release,
as there are some compatibility issues with the built-in
TTS software on several recent phone models. Instead,
the release now also includes a choice of male Vocalizer
voices for English (US and UK), German and French.
Please note that the ZOOMS functionality is not yet available
on 5th Edition phones.
Version 5.00 is a free upgrade for all Premium Edition
licenses generated after November 13th, 2007. In particular,
this means that it can be installed by any customer who
is currently able to run version 4.11 without requiring
a new license.
Version 5.00 is a free upgrade for all Premium Edition
licenses generated after November 13th, 2007. In particular,
this means that it can be installed by any customer who
is currently able to run version 4.11 without requiring
a new license.
2. The New Handsets
2.1. Changes to the list of supported phone models
The following handsets are newly supported (please see
section 4 “Known Issues” about some limitations):
• Nokia 5630 XpressMusic
• Nokia 5800 XpressMusic
• Nokia E72
• Nokia N97
• Nokia N97mini
• Nokia X6
We also assume the following phones to work without major
problems. However we have not got enough test results
yet to definitely confirm this:
• Nokia 5230 Xpress Music
• Nokia 5235 Xpress Music
• Nokia 5530 Xpress Music
• Nokia 6700 slide (but not 6700 classic!)
See section 6 for a full list of compatible handsets
for this version.
3. What’s New?
This section lists the improvements of TALKS 5.00 compared
to the previous version (4.11)
.
3.1. Support for 5th Edition, including touch screens
The most important new feature of TALKS 5.00 is its support
for Series 60 5th Edition phones using touch screens.
It can be used both on phones that combine touch with
a physical keyboard (e.g. the Nokia N97), as well as touch-only
phones (such as the Nokia 5800 Xpress Music).
Overall, TALKS aims to preserve the experience of the
sighted user when working with a touch screen as much
as possible, so that a phone can easily be shared, and
support effort is kept low
There are two main additions to the standard Symbian
user interface to make touch screens accessible to blind
and partially sighted users:
• “Explore Mode”, which allows identifying features on
the screen through touch without clicking them
• Support for single-handed operation of the phone using
the side keys, allowing menus and lists to be operated
reliably without using the touch screen
“Explore Mode” is automatically entered when the finger
is held on the touch screen for more than about half a
second without moving. As long as the finger is kept on
the display afterwards, it can be moved around, and TALKS
announces the names of objects as they are touched. If
the finger is then lifted, followed by a brief tap anywhere
on the screen (within about 1.5 seconds), the object that
was under the finger when it was lifted is then clicked.
At the same time, if the finger is moved quickly across
the display, or used for a brief tap, without waiting
for Explore Mode to be activated first, TALKS does not
interfere, and the phone works as it would without TALKS.
This means that “gestures”, such as flicking across a
list to perform “kinetic scrolling”, can still be used
as designed by the phone manufacturer.
The only exception to this principle is the web browser,
where TALKS overlays the web page with an invisible “virtual
keyboard” that can be used to browse various elements
of the page, e.g. between headings or between links (similar
to the approach used under 3rd Edition), rather than relying
on direct exploration of a web page’s contents.
In addition, TALKS redefines the side keys on 5th Edition
phones (normally used only to control volume) to allow
navigation through lists and menus without using the touch
screen. In addition, pressing and holding the “Down” key
selects the currently focused element, while pressing
and holding the “Up” key accesses different areas of the
screen, such as the list of tab sheets or soft keys.
After pressing the [Talks] key (which continues to be
the [Menu] key on 5th Edition phones by default) an invisible
virtual keyboard on the screen can be “explored” for access
to most screen reader functions that are available through
numeric keys on non-touch screens. [Talks],[Key lock]
/ [Talks],[long Key lock] can be used for muting/unmuting
speech, or for changing the TTS engine.
TALKS provides speech feedback for using most of the
standard on-screen keyboards for text input (except for
mini-Qwerty and handwriting). Please note that TALKS lets
you open the on-screen keyboard in most places through
pressing [long Vol Down] when a text area is focused (in
addition to the normal way of tapping again into a focused
text field).
3.2. Support for new 3rd Edition e-mail and calendar
This version is the first to support the new e-mail application
that is found on all recent 3rd Edition phones (e.g. E52,
N86, 6710 etc.), as well as the new calendar application
that is used on recent E-series models (E52, E72). Both
applications were previously completely inaccessible.
Please note that current 5th Edition models use different
e-mail clients.
In the e-mail client, the Inbox view and associated menus
are read completely (with exception of the list index).
Once an e-mail is opened, it is displayed in a mode that
is somewhat similar to the old WAP browser. Therefore,
functions such as [Talks],[Down] to read the full text
of an e-mail are not supported, and the message is instead
read line-by-line when it is scrolled with the cursor
keys. Links in e-mail messages are not yet supported,
but will be in a future version – for now, the selection
of a link can be detected by a change in the middle soft
key.
Calendar support is currently more limited, but should
still give access to most essential information, in particular
the currently focused day or event. However, future versions
will improve this to reduce the amount of speech produced
when the screen contents change.
3.3. Additional audio settings
It is now possible to define a large portion of audio
settings as application-specific settings. This lets the
user define, for example, a special TTS engine to be used
only for reading incoming messages. A new “audio priority”
option also lets fine-tune the way in which conflicts
between TALKS speech and other audio (e.g. music playback)
are handled in each application. This possibility is already
used by TALKS in some places, such selecting a ringtone
in the “Profiles” application.
In addition, you can now define options such as volume
and speech delay separately for speaker and headset use,
and also have TALKS speak with a different volume while
a call is in progress. This is controlled by the new “Audio
settings” feature in the Options menu of the TALKS application,
and replaces the global “Volume factor” and “Speech delay”
settings on the Speech tab.
3.4. Various compatibility improvements
As usual, TALKS 5.00 further increases compatibility with
3rd party applications and features of specific phone
models:
• Improved access to chat window and some of the lists
in the "fring" messaging and VoIP application
• Voice labels for icons are now independent of graphic
sizes: easier exchange of user-generated icon labels,
and more reliable detection of 3G status etc.
• Status indicators on Feature Pack 2 can be read also
when the keyboard is locked.
• TALKS no longer prevents the “Received SMS” signal tone
from being played.
• Fixed some stability issues, such as partial hangs of
the phone when pressing [Exit] in certain system dialogs
(e.g. the “1 new message” notification or the Power menu).
3.5. Other changes
This section lists some changes to TALKS that are mostly
related to the screen reader-specific aspects of the product:
• Enabling/disabling Braille and Magnification have been
moved to [Talks],[long Call] and [Talks],[long Exit],
respectively, to provide consistency with the [Talks],[long
Clear] option for enabling/disabling speech, and to free
up the easily accessible [Talks],[Exit] shortcut for future
use.
• Current date/time can be read more easily using [Talks],[Call]
hotkey that is also accessible on a touch or slider phone.
• Prevents accidental triggering of TALKS functions while
keyboard is locked.
• More reliable detection of keyboard lock (so TALKS can
mute itself properly).
• New option to automatically un-mute TALKS after a certain
time while a phone call is in progress.
• Training mode is automatically disabled when screen
saver is actived, or in the event of an incoming call.
• Improved spelling of individual letters with some Vocalizer
voices.
• Some fixes to Braille-specific issues, e.g problems
entering SMS and controlling the web browser on some phones.
4. Known Issues on specific handsets
• 5th Edition: currently, there are some limitations to
the use of the on-screen keyboard for text entry. In particular,
the menus for switching to other keyboard layouts are
not read, and opening the symbol table can lead to the
on-screen keyboard stopping to take input until you press
[Exit] to return to the main menu, and then return to
the application where you were entering text. Switching
to other keyboard layouts is not recommended, as some
of them (e.g. mini-Qwerty or handwriting) are not yet
supported by TALKS, and can be difficult to exit.
• N97: training mode will read the digits, rather than
the letters, for the keys in the top row of the QWERTY
keyboard.
• Some keyboard functions, such as [Talks],[digit] shortcuts
on the Idle screen and the use of the side keys to navigate
through menus on 5th Edition, are only supported after
the phone has been rebooted once after installing or re-enabling
TALKS.
• TALKS will occasionally read the names of the softkeys
for the first time only after a delay of some seconds,
when an application has just been newly opened, or been
brought to the foreground.
• E71: The current time is read when typing first digit
of phone number, and when [Key 2] is pressed to listen
to Caller ID.
• 3rd Edition (FP1 and FP2): the “Search” application
is not supported.
• 3rd Edition FP2 and 5th Edition: Built-in Help screens
are not read because they use the web browser in a way
that is not yet supported by TALKS.
• 3rd Edition FP2: You will notice a slow response of
voice recognition "beep" after holding [Key
2] when TALKS is not muted
• E75: When using ZOOMS, moving around the screen by holding
down the cursor keys is currently not possible. The magnified
portion of the screen always follows the current focus
position.
• N96: “Photos” application (and “Photos” submenu of “Gallery”)
is not supported.
• N96: Daisy2Go does not support firmware versions prior
to 20.x of this phone.
• 5th Edition: when uninstalling TALKS through the App
Manager, the process may sometimes hang. In this case,
disable TALKS before unstalling it, or use either PC Suite
or the “Organize” option of the phone’s main menu to remove
the software. This is not an issue when simply installing
an upgrade of TALKS over an existing version.
5. FAQ
Q: Your software does not install on my E-Series handset
or branded device, and reports a Certificate Error! Why?
A: While TALKS&ZOOMS for S60 3rd Edition itself is
certified, and thus can be installed on any supported
S60 3rd Edition handset, the installers for the TTS engines
(Eloquence or Vocalizer for Mobile) are not signed. E-Series
handsets and some branded devices only accept the installation
of signed software, unless you turn of the corresponding
option inside the Application Manager:
• Open the phone menu.
• Open the App. Manager inside the Tools folder
• Press “Options”, then select “Settings”.
• Set “Software Installation” from “Signed only” to “All”.
• Press “Back” to close the Settings dialogue, then “Exit”
to close the App. Manager.
• Now, you can install the TTS engine.
Another reason could be that the date on your phone is
not set correctly – as 3rd Edition software is digitally
signed, SIS files can only be installed if the phone is
set to a valid date.
